Bees and travelers both venture many miles looking for beauty and care about Earth, so when I was across the country from my home and saw a beekeeping class, I was abuzz. It was about time I learned more about caring for the fellow traveling creatures responsible for so much life on our planet.
As a traveler, it’s important to me to take care of our planet and offset any damaging impact I might have on it. Taking care of bees is one easy, fun and fulfilling way to do that, so I set off to learn more about these delightful little creatures and how I can help them thrive.
How to be a Beekeeper
Queen Beekeeper Allison hosted me in her bee castle in an unsuspecting subdivision in the San Jose, California hills. You don’t need much space to be a beekeeper, just access to flowers, of which California has plenty.
We met in her flower-filled backyard, and she told me about the history of beekeeping while preparing the tools we would need to meet the bees.
About ten years ago, she was “adopted” by the bees when they started gathering in her yard, and she called someone to have them removed. That person showed up in an oversized “bee mobile” and convinced her to try keeping them; thus, her sweet story began.
Why Keep Bees
Bees pollinate the plants we eat, and our planet cannot survive without them. Sadly, their populations continue to decline and it’s up to us to save them. Honeybees have been teetering near endangerment from habitat loss, parasites, pesticides, pollution, and other causes. Humans can help mitigate a few of these causes.
Not all bees are bad. Most aren’t. There are many distinct types of bees, like many different kinds of fish. There are over 20,000 known bee species globally, about 4,000 in the United States alone. And they’re not bad. Honey bees, especially, do not want to sting. If you’re gentle with them, they’ll be gentle in return, as I was about to learn.
Beekeeping 101
Beekeeping only needs as much space as the size of the hive, which can be as small as a file box. This means almost anyone can do it. She even knows someone who keeps a hive on their apartment balcony.
Allison kept her bees – nearly a million of them – in a brick area alongside her house that was about the space of a double-wide hallway.
To start our lesson, Allison showed me how to prepare and light the smoker to stun the bees and make them more compliant to us rooting around in their hive. It was a metal canister with a handle, a funnel and a bellow to keep the straw and lint burning and pump out the smoke. There was also a small, handheld metal honeycomb chisel/pry bar for digging in the hive.
I was nervous and I giggled giving myself away.
“Are you afraid of bees?” she asked.
“No … not really … I mean kind of, I guess. We’re taught to be afraid of bees. But they look OK on the videos, so ….”
“If you’re gentle with them they’ll be gentle back,” she said.
Keeping that in mind, I got dressed in a bee suit of white cotton pants and a white jacket that looked like a straitjacket without straps but an attached hat. The hat was wide-brimmed and attached to the jacket with a zipper around the neck. The entire front was a dark mesh screen for airflow but closed so the bees couldn’t enter. It was sort of like a hazmat suit. I looked exactly like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, except much less cute.
Storing Bee Hives
Despite her having several bee hives and a yard filled with flowers, I didn’t see any bees until we were right next to the hive. Then, it was obvious there was another world of which I’d been unaware.
She kept the bees in wooded boxes stacked on top of one another to look like little apartment complexes. Some were short, just two stacks high, and others were four or six stacks high. The boxes were like filing cabinets; within them hung a series of “files” made of hexagonal prismatic wax cells where the bees were busy making honey.
I wondered how I hadn’t been able to hear the buzzing just on the other side of the fence. Now that I was next to the hives, the buzzing was captivating. It reminded me of a meditation called Bhramari Pranayama, or Bumblebee Breath. It’s a calming breath practice when you hum like a bee. Watch this quick video I took to hear how loud they were.
The apartments were entirely sealed shut, except for a tiny door at the bottom where the bees could come and go. I watched as bees entered the door to deposit their collection with their rear leg pollen pockets stuffed with yellow pollen. When Allison stood in front of the door blocking their path, a traffic jam of bees formed behind her. When she moved, they lined up at the entrance to deposit their collections.
How Much Bees Travel
Bees can travel up to five miles to collect pollen from different flowers and store it in their leg pockets for transport back to the hive. Once at the hive, they keep the pollen in the combs and begin making honey. Each hive has about 60,000 bees. About a dozen hives surrounded us.
Honey making for the bees is like canning for humans, I learned. They live off honey and try to make enough of it, so they will always have food stored, no matter the season, the available pollen, or lack thereof. But they make more than three times the amount of honey they need to survive, clever little worker bees, so human beekeepers harvest the excess. This was the process I was to learn.
Speaking of “worker bees,” that’s real. The female bees are workers who do everything to make the honey and manage the hive while the queen bee makes babies. The drones are all males, and their only job is traveling to impregnate queens from other hives.
Honey Collection
I pumped the bellow of the smoker into and around the apartment complex and used a honeycomb chisel to pry open the roof. Wax entirely sealed the lid shut; it needed some muscle to pry off. Once open, the files of combs were revealed, and hundreds of buzzing bees milled about, surprised by the sunlight but dazed by the smoke.
Inside the box were several files holding various combs. More wax held the combs inside the box, so I used my tool again to pry them loose and lifted one out. Though only the size of a file folder, the comb weighed about 10 pounds, mostly pure honey. A thin film of wax coated the outside of the file and once punctured with a tool or a finger, the honey oozed out.
I removed my gloves and dipped my finger into the comb, coating it in honey. It was the sweetest, richest, purest honey I’d ever had. Several bees joined me, sticking out their tongues to lap up the sweet nectar.
Fun Fact: Bee tongues are straw-like devices called a proboscis.
Once the beekeeper is ready to harvest the honey, they place the comb in a honey extractor. It’s a bucket that holds the files and spins them rapidly using centrifugal force to extract the honey. It then drips down the sides to a hole in the bottom for bottling.
A Better Earth and Tasty Honey
My job as a beekeeper now done; I enjoyed the fruits, er, sweet reward from my labors. Allison had set up a honey tasting station with various crackers, cheeses, nuts and different types of honey. I learned there are many kinds of honey depending on the locations, the nectar collected, the time of the season, and how it is harvested and stored. It’s like fine wines. The grapes, region and process determine how it will turn out.
Besides the honey, the wax from the comb is also used to make lip balms, candles, lotions and other items. Nothing is wasted. I chewed on some of the beeswaxes I scrapped from the hive, and it was a lot like honey-flavored bubble gum, which should totally “bee” a thing.
When beekeeping, not only are you helping the earth, you also get a sweet reward in the end.
Save the Bees
Ecological farming and the preservation of their habitats will help. In your own life, you can forgo pesticide use, cultivate flowering plants, or support those who do. Instead of destroying beehives, consider save them.
Do I plan to become a beekeeper? One day, when I’m not a nomad, I’d love to.
Learn more about bees and ways to protect them by visiting these resources.
I’m always trying new things. See some of my other experiences here.
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